Module Identifier | DR22620 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Module Title | THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ACTING 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Academic Year | 2006/2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Co-ordinator | Mrs Joan G Mills | ||||||||||||||||||||
Semester | Semester 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Other staff | Mr Richard A D Cheshire, Mrs Joan G Mills | ||||||||||||||||||||
Course delivery | Practical | 8 x 3 hour weekly practical class with Joan Mills 1 weekend workshops with Richard Cheshire 5 x 2 hour classes with Stephanie Tillotson | |||||||||||||||||||
Assessment |
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This module develops students' understanding of the use of voice and movement as modes of theatrical exposition. It also develops and extends the concepts of psychological realism experienced by students on DR21510: The Theory and Practice of Acting 1, by assessing a range of alternative acting and rehearsal methodologies. This module requires students to engage with different theatrical modes and apply key principles of practice to classical and contemporary texts.
Sessions with Joan Mills will include the following:
1. The voice: Safety; Understanding the vocal mechanism; pitch, range, timbre, resonance, volume, expression.
2. The body: posture, balance, appropriate tension, release, support.
3. Co-ordination and flexibility.
4. The connection of breath to emotional impulse and language.
5. Presence: physical action; image; being; the sub-text; tempo rhythm.
6. Spontaneity: response, listening, working with others.
7. Analysing the action, thought-to-thought analysis of the text
8. Making the text one's own, avoidance of cliche, avoidance of generalisation, being in the moment.
Sessions with Richard Cheshire will include:
1 and 2. Performing Shakespeare, understanding the verse, form, structure, the ambic pentameter, monosyllables, feminine endings.
3 and 4. Marrying the two traditions of Elizabethan and `modern' acting: the work of John Barton, Cicely Berry and Peter Hall; working on Shakespeare's prose
5 and 6. Working on duologues: unlocking the text, releasing the given circumstances, the actor's future
For part of the assessment, students will work as part of a team interpreting an extract chosen by one of their peers who will act as a director for this piece. The director will be studying DR22910: Principles of Directing Dramatic Texts and will work within the guidance and framework of the assessment piece for this module using these students as actors.
Problem_solving | Creative problem solving, outcome recognition, and the identification of the appropriate strategies and procedures and encouraged and assessed throughout the module. | ||
Research skills | A wide range of research skills are necessary e.g. researching writers' background, examining the style and context of the play, comparing rehearsal methodology. Whilst these skills directly inform the work of the students, they are not directly assessed as part of this module. | ||
Communication | The individual student's ability to articulate and communicate their ideas and opinions is developed throughout the module. This area of development is encouraged and assessed within all aspects of the processes and presentations involved. | ||
Improving own Learning and Performance | Self assessment and appraisal are intrinsic to the practical and theoretical study of the craft of study. This module places emphasis on students' progression, development and achievement and students are given continuous feedback during classwork and opportunities to reflect on their progress. | ||
Team work | Group working is addressed and exercised throughout the module. Practical classes demand the application of skills necessary to conduct successful collaborative activity. | ||
Information Technology | Information handling is not formally assessed, but is encouraged through the conduct of research. | ||
Personal Development and Career planning | The module encourages the initial development of skills directly applicable to careers within the theatre/performance industries. A large number of students elect to further their acting training at postgraduate level. | ||
Subject Specific Skills | A theoretical and practical understanding of the craft of acting is at the core of the Department's Drama provision. |
This module is at CQFW Level 5